Charlie Smyth, Democratic Candidate for Ward 1 WUNA meeting Feb 3, 2005

Some of you may remember that I was on the Urbana City Council from 1989-93. During that term, the Council made a number of zoning changes to help preserve our neighborhood, including the area between Busey and Lincoln from Green to Florida. Those were difficult changes to pass and it took a veto override to accomplish them (Jeff Markland was mayor).  Recent talk of the next Comprehensive Plan reversing some of those changes, and the destruction of a home that was zoned R7 have me pretty concerned. In fact, the current proposed comprehensive plan omits the “Busey Finger”area, leaving it for future discussion.

With much of the City Council turning over and not having Esther Patt’s strong representation of Ward 1’s interests, I believe it will be important to have experienced council members next term. Now that my two children are grown, I am willing to serve again. I've lived in Champaign and Urbana since arriving for grad school in 1979. I moved into the West Urbana neighborhood in '82 and we bought our house on Coler in '87. Like many of you, we appreciate the proximity to campus and downtown, and enjoy the diversity that helps define this neighborhood. West Urbana is one of the finest things about living in Urbana!

I currently serve on the Urbana Free Library Board and I work as a computer network and systems administrator for the University of Illinois. Some of you may also know me from past soccer coaching and reffing.

I support putting some teeth into the current rental house occupancy ordinance and closing any zoning loopholes that endanger established neighborhoods. I suspect that won’t be enough and we may need to consider limiting how R1/R2 single family homes are used, and think about the possibility of a conservation district. I’m concerned about how some rental property is allowed to go downhill just so it can be replaced by something bigger and cheaper. While such property is decaying, it attracts crime and undesirable activities. Where possible, we need to encourage home ownership as that helps preserve neighborhoods and keep crime down.

I consider myself a progressive individual and in the past, I supported neighborhood preservation efforts, expanded recycling, and appropriate development. In addition, I consider myself fiscally prudent - the city has to live within its budget. I believe we need citizens to be united in supporting thoughtful redevelopment (as discussed by some of the WUNA membership), for appropriate development in collar areas around the city, and for downtown revitalization. We need to think about what we want this city to be 5, 10, 20 years from now, keeping sustainability in mind. If this is truly a progressive city, what are we doing today that can be described as progressive?

Since roughly half of Ward 1 is made up of students in dorms and rental property, supporting programs that help them is important.  Development of the Gregory Street complex on campus should benefit both the city and the students by bringing people into the area and the additional foot traffic should help adjoining business. We need to be sure that people can get out and about safely - we don't see much of the student patrols that in the past helped with noise and safety issues. If we don’t want to have to drive to the suburbs and strip malls, if we want to have neighborhood businesses like Sunshine Grocery, we need to have a real neighborhood business zoning that allows us to control what, when, and how such a business would operate. The impression I get is that even city staff is interested in looking at a real B1 zoning ordinance.

One council member can only do so much as it takes 4 plus the mayor's support to effect change so having an active and involved citizenry can be really important. I'm looking forward to meeting and talking with many of you over the next several months. I’d like to thank the organizers and everyone for coming out and providing us this opportunity to speak on the issues. I welcome your questions and comments.

– Charlie Smyth, csmyth@sbcglobal.net, 367-2813

and soon: www.charliesmyth.org